Heritage Investors Management Corp Boosts Stock Position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Posted by MarketBeat News on May 22nd, 2023

Heritage Investors Management Corp lifted its position in Microsoft Co. (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) by 0.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 336,184 shares of the software giant’s stock after buying an additional 2,710 shares during the period. Microsoft makes up 3.7% of Heritage Investors Management Corp’s holdings, making the stock its 2nd largest position. Heritage Investors Management Corp’s holdings in Microsoft were worth $80,624,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Monumental Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Microsoft during the first quarter valued at $28,000. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. boosted its position in Microsoft by 71.4% during the third quarter. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. now owns 132 shares of the software giant’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Retirement Financial Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in Microsoft during the fourth quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, PayPay Securities Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Microsoft in the fourth quarter worth about $54,000. Institutional investors own 69.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have weighed in on MSFT shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Microsoft from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. BMO Capital Markets raised Microsoft from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $325.00 to $347.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $320.00 to $345.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. BNP Paribas cut Microsoft from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $310.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Monday, April 24th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on Microsoft from $310.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and thirty-two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Microsoft currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $323.28.

Insider Activity

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In related news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total value of $1,186,410.96. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $196,272,990. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Satya Nadella sold 4,767 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total value of $1,186,410.96. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 788,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $196,272,990. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Judson Althoff sold 30,000 shares of Microsoft stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $306.09, for a total transaction of $9,182,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 117,456 shares in the company, valued at $35,952,107.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 54,848 shares of company stock worth $16,635,227. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Microsoft Price Performance

MSFT stock opened at $318.34 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $290.86 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $261.67. The stock has a market cap of $2.37 trillion, a PE ratio of 34.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.91, a quick ratio of 1.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. Microsoft Co. has a 1 year low of $213.43 and a 1 year high of $319.04.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 25th. The software giant reported $2.45 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.22 by $0.23. The company had revenue of $52.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $51.01 billion. Microsoft had a return on equity of 38.98% and a net margin of 33.25%. Microsoft’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.22 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Microsoft Co. will post 9.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Microsoft Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 18th will be given a $0.68 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 17th. This represents a $2.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.85%. Microsoft’s payout ratio is 29.47%.

About Microsoft

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Microsoft Corp. engages in the development and support of software, services, devices, and solutions. It operates through the following business segments: Productivity and Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud, and More Personal Computing. The Productivity and Business Processes segment consists of Office Commercial (Office 365 subscriptions, the Office 365 portion of Microsoft 365 Commercial subscriptions, and Office licensed on-premises), Exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Office 365 Security and Compliance, and Skype for Business, Office Consumer, including Microsoft 365 Consumer subscriptions, Office licensed on-premises, and other Office services, LinkedIn, including Talent Solutions, Marketing Solutions, Premium Subscriptions, Sales Solutions, and Learning Solutions, Dynamics business solutions, including Dynamics 365, comprising a set of intelligent, cloud-based applications across ERP, CRM, Customer Insights, Power Apps, and Power Automate, and on-premises ERP and CRM applications.